.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said on Thursday that New York’s powerful and longtime Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) was “a man of integrity” despite having just been arrested and charged with corruption.

Silver surrendered to federal authorities earlier in the day after being charged with allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes. However, de Blasio stood by the speaker during a news conference at City Hall.

“Although the charges announced today are certainly very serious, I want to note that I’ve always known Shelly Silver to be a man of integrity, and he certainly has due process rights,” de Blasio said. “And I think it’s important that we let the judicial process play out here.”

De Blasio noted that “allegations are allegations” and said he didn’t believe Silver should step down at this point.

Parker admitted that she had received Bibles, telling KHOU that Huckabee was “doing what he can to pump ratings for Fox News.”

Parker told KPRC that she thought the protest was “a very productive way for folks who disagreed with our legal strategy to express that disagreement” and that she is “happy to share the Bibles with those who may want them.”

The city previously issued an ordinance that the sermons of pastors on “the topics of equal rights, civil rights, homosexuality, or gender identity,” be subpoenaed.

According to KPRC, “Parker has since instructed the city’s legal team to narrow the scope of the subpoenas and had earlier said she did not know about the sermon subpoenas before they were issued.”

.
As the Obama Administration continues to pump thousands of illegal immigrants into the interior of our nation, concerned Americans have been arriving in Murrieta, California, to protest the wave of illegal immigrants and the Obama Administration’s commitment to lawlessness that facilitates this surge of illegals.

In a recent townhall as Murrieta citizens voiced concern over the flood of illegals being introduced into the country, Murrieta Mayor Alan Long earned a roaring applause when he declared that his administration was working to log each and every manhour spent dealing with the illegal immigration issues so that he could send Washington “a big, fat bill.”

“We did identify the need for a funding code so that we could track every single hour that is spent on this. Now, at the end of this, do I have a plan to send Washington, D.C., a big, fat bill? You bet!”

Long’s speech was interrupted by a roar of applause. Finally, Long admitted, “Now, do I have any faith that it would be paid? No.”

Murietta has become a focal point of the immigration issue as protesters have successfully blocked Homeland Security busses who were transporting illegals further into the interior of the country to a detention facility in order to ease the burden on detention facilities closer to the border.

FBI agents on Wednesday arrested the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, for allegedly taking tens of thousands of dollars worth of bribes “in exchange for the use of his official position,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Patrick D. Cannon, 47, faces federal charges of theft and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, honest services wire fraud and extortion under color of official right, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins of western North Carolina.

The Charlotte mayor’s office declined a CNN request for comment. However, CNN obtained a copy of Cannon’s resignation letter, sent to City of Charlotte Manager Ron Carlee and City Attorney Bob Hagemann.

“I hereby give notice of my resignation from the position of the Mayor of the City of Charlotte, effective immediately. In light of the charges that have been brought against me, it is my judgment that the pendency of these charges will create too much of a distraction for the business of the City to go forward smoothly and without interruption,” Cannon wrote in the letter.

.
It’s another tale of two cities – one set of traffic rules for Mayor de Blasio, and one for the rest of us.

Just two days after de Blasio announced a sweeping plan to crack down on dangerous driving, an SUV with the mayor riding shotgun ran stop signs, changed lanes without signaling and flouted the speed limit.

.

.
It was caught on camera by a WCBS-TV/Channel 2 news crew that trailed de Blasio’s official two-vehicle motorcade after he left a news conference in Queens Thursday touting the city’s pothole repair work.

The behavior was a far cry from de Blasio’s comments Tuesday when he announced his Vision Zero plan to end traffic deaths.

.

.
He proposed a slew of measures, including lowering the citywide speed limit and installing more cameras to catch drivers who speed and run red lights.

.

.
“We’ve put a very bold plan before you,” he said Tuesday, “and we want the public to know we’re holding ourselves to this standard and we intend to achieve these goals.”

Yet, on Thursday, his official black SUV blew through two stop signs in Queens and was clocked by Channel 2 traveling 40 to 45 mph in a 30 mph zone and pushing 60 in a 45 mph zone.

.

.
When he reached City Hall, the mayor lingered in his SUV, leaving the second car in his caravan unable to pass through the City Hall gate – blocking a crosswalk and an intersection.

.

.
If a driver had been ticketed for all the violations, he would have racked up 13 points on his license – more than the 11 that trigger a suspension, Channel 2’s Marcia Kramer reported.

It is not clear why the mayor was in a rush, but he is often behind schedule. His news conference in Queens began 15 minutes late.

While serving as the city’s public advocate, in 2010, de Blasio chose to drive himself, “often accelerating aggressively to beat yellow lights,” according to an account in The New York Times.

De Blasio’s press secretary, Phil Walzak, said, “We believe public safety is everyone’s responsibility. We also recognize NYPD’s training and protocols, and refer questions related to security and transportation to them. With that in mind, Mayor de Blasio is firmly committed to the traffic safety policies outlined this week.”

In a prepared statement, the Police Department said “personnel assigned to the mayor’s security detail receive specialized training in driving based on maintaining security as well as safety.”

“At certain times, under certain conditions, this training may include… maintaining speed with the general flow of traffic, and may sometimes include tactics to safely keep two or more police vehicles together in formation when crossing intersections.”

A jury convicted former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Wednesday on 20 of 21 federal corruption counts, including bribery, marking a stunning fall for the feisty official who gained a national profile following Hurricane Katrina.

.

.
The 57-year-old Democrat, who led his city through the aftermath of the 2005 storm, was found guilty of charges that he accepted bribes, free trips and other gratuities from contractors in exchange for helping them secure millions of dollars in city work while he was in office.

He will remain free on bond while he awaits sentencing. Each of the charges carries a sentence from three to 20 years, but how long he would serve was unclear and will depend on a pre-sentence investigation and various sentencing guidelines. No sentencing date was set.

Nagin sat quietly at the defense table after the verdict was read and his wife, Seletha, was being consoled in the front row. Before the verdict, he said outside the New Orleans courtroom: “I’ve been at peace with this for a long time. I’m good.”

Nagin, who left office in 2010 after eight years, was indicted in January 2013 on charges he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and truckloads of free granite for his family business in exchange for promoting the interests of local businessman Frank Fradella.

He also was charged with accepting thousands of dollars in in payoffs from another businessman, Rodney Williams, for his help in securing city contracts.

Nagin is best remembered for his impassioned pleas for help after levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans and plunging the city into chaos.

Nagin testified that key witnesses lied and prosecutors misinterpreted evidence including emails, checks and pages from his appointment calendar linking him to businessmen who said they bribed him.

The defense repeatedly said prosecutors overstated Nagin’s authority to approve contracts. His lawyer said there is no proof money and material given to the granite business owned by Nagin and his sons was tied to city business.

The charges against Nagin included one overarching conspiracy count along with six counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of filing false tax returns. He was acquitted of one of the bribery counts.

Each charges carries a sentence from 3 to 20 years, but how long he would serve was unclear and will depend on a pre-sentence investigation and various sentencing guidelines. No sentencing date was set.

Prosecutors say he took hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of bribes including money, free travel and granite for Stone Age LLC, a family granite business.

They allege the corruption spanned the time before and after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.

The charges resulted from a City Hall corruption investigation that had resulted in several convictions or guilty pleas by former Nagin associates by the time trial started on Jan. 27.

Fradella and Williams, both awaiting sentencing for their roles in separate bribery schemes alleged in the case, each testified that they bribed Nagin.

Nagin’s former technology chief, Greg Meffert, who also is awaiting sentencing after a plea deal, told jurors he helped another businessman, Mark St. Pierre, bribe Nagin with lavish vacation trips. St. Pierre did not testify. He was convicted in the case in 2011.

Nagin said he did not to know his vacation trips to Jamaica and Hawaii were paid for by St. Pierre. He also said he wasn’t told that a family trip to New York was paid for by a movie theater owner who, prosecutors said, received help with a city tax issue after Katrina wiped out the theater.